Seattle Labor Lawyer Sentenced to Five Years in FBI Sex Sting
A former Seattle labor lawyer convicted in an FBI sex sting has been sentenced to five years in prison for traveling to Oregon to meet a person he thought was a 14-year-old girl.
The lawyer, William B. Knowles, billed the trip to a flight attendants union he represented, the Oregonian reports. Knowles also met with a congressional staffer during his visit to lobby for a bill to improve air quality in airplanes.
The “girl” was an FBI agent who traded messages with Knowles in a chat room called “taboo.” The agent sent Knowles a picture of his own underage daughter to convince him the girl was real, the newspaper account says.
Prosecutors said Knowles bought wine and condoms before going to a train station to meet the girl. He consented to a search of his hotel room, where FBI agents found sexual toys and a laptop with images of child pornography, a government press release says.
Former sex partners testified at Knowles’ trial that he was not attracted to underage girls, WWeek.com reports.
Lead prosecutor Greg Nyhus, an assistant U.S. attorney, told WWeek.com that the trial “was all very salacious. I got educated, we’ll put it that way, and my job is pornography prosecution.”
Knowles was convicted in August of interstate travel with the intention of engaging in sex with a minor, and coercion and enticement of a minor.
